Hobbies

As I write this I am still in my 24 hours of the Sabbath (12 / 22, 23 / 2019). I read scripture, I pray, I try to write something but I don't want to write something about scripture but in many ways scripture impacts so many areas of our life. The Sabbath is about restoration. Hobbies can be an avenue of restoration, a way to relax and enjoy life, fill our emotional, spiritual, mental, physical tanks if you will. One hobby that I have is taking pictures, I started into it during a period of emotional bankruptcy. I was going through my first divorce and I ended up so drained I had absolutely nothing to give to anyone. My employer forced me to take a medical leave for one month. It was to give me time off to restore that emotional tank that had been running on empty until it went dry. I went by my pastors' office to see him and told him what was happening. He loaned me his 35-millimeter camera and told me to go and take pictures.  I did, and still to this day I take all kinds of mundane pictures and every once in a while I get a picture I really like. It became a hobby I enjoy to this day. With that hobby I developed another hobby, I don't know what else to call it. I like to just see the country, I call them road trips. On my road trips, I take pictures sometimes lots of them. It is a way to refill those tanks. I develop memories, silly incidents that stick in my mind. Nothing great about them just silly things that happen on a road trip. My tank gets refilled. In small-town Nebraska on a road trip, I don't even remember the name of the town anymore, I stopped to send a postcard. The post office was across the street from a bank. I was parked by a picture window of that bank and the bank employees were watching me look through my truck looking for my stamps. They called the police, they saw out of state license plates and thought I was going to rob them. The police came and asked me what I was doing, then explained what had happened, the bank was afraid I was going to rob them and he just told me to park someplace else while I look for my stamps. I was in Arizona on another road trip in the month of December. It was a beautiful warm sunny day. I decided to pull off the freeway on a side road and just soak up some sun. Don't see many days like this in December where I was living at the time. I had a piece of plywood in the back of the truck and I laid it on top of the canopy and just laid up there in the sun soaking it up.  As I was looking around I saw a uniformed officer watching me with binoculars. I got out my binoculars and looked back. What is going on? Soon he walked over to me and asked me what I was doing. I explained I was from Washington state and don't see many sunny and warm days in December up there, I was just soaking up some sun. Find another place to do that, we have a prison work crew on the other side of the freeway up the road a ways and you are making us nervous. I did. I have taken many pictures on these road trips but have also retained many silly memories as I fill my emotional, mental spiritual, physical tanks. On my last road trip along the southern border of Texas, I wanted to see how close I could get to the Rio Grande. I saw this dirt road to my left and it had a street sign so I took it. I saw a dike ahead of me and figured it was along the Rio Grande. I was right, but I saw restricted area signs so I thought I need to get out of here. I looked in one mirror to back up the van and I didn't see anyone but a horn honked. I stopped and already had a border patrol behind me. Two more showed up in just minutes. They checked me out, I explained I was carrying and they asked where my weapon was. I have a 45 up here in a locked case in the shelf above my head and a nine millimeter in the back on the sidewall.  They explained to me when I turned on that dirt road off the hiway I was trespassing through a farmers field and on the dike where I was, I was in a restricted area. I could go no further than that hiway.    One more little story about my border adventure. I pulled off the hiway to go pee. I pulled down toward a gully going under the hiway I was just on.  I stood there peeing and noticed a coax cable along the fence in front of me. I followed the coax cable and then noticed a hidden camera right in front of me. I waved and finished.  These hobbies are a way to refill my tanks. I understand today that is what the sabbath is really about, refilling our tanks one day a week. One day out of seven. God bless, LVZ.